Not all squash are edible. SomeBitter gourds can be the cause of sometimes serious food poisoning or even significant dehydration. ANSES calls for vigilance before you start cooking squash.
In full season of pumpkins, pumpkins, and pumpkins which brighten up autumn recipes, the National Agency for Food Safety and Security (Anses) recalls that not all “squash” are edible. Indeed, some bitter gourds can be the cause of food poisoning, nausea, vomiting.
On the same subject
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Some wild squash contain cucurbitacins, very irritating and bitter substances that can be responsible, quickly after eating, for digestive pain, nausea, vomiting, sometimes bloody diarrhea, or even severe dehydration requiring hospitalization. “These substances, which do not disappear during cooking, are produced by wild squash to repel predatory insects” explains ANSES. in a press release.
Bitter gourds should not be eaten
This is the case of ornamental gourds such as colocynths, all considered toxic, which are sold commercially (sometimes in the fruit and vegetable section) for strictly decorative use, and which should not be confused with edible squash.
This is also the case for certain food squash grown in the family vegetable garden, which become unfit for consumption following wild hybridizations. This phenomenon occurs when bitter and edible varieties coexist in neighboring vegetable gardens, and the seeds are collected and sown year after year. We recognize them by their bitter taste.
>> How to know if it is toxic : taste a small piece of raw squash and if the taste is bitter, spit it out and discard the squash: it should not be eaten, even cooked. And don’t eat “wild” squash that grew spontaneously. Also, do not collect seeds from previous harvests to reseed them. Buy new seeds for each new seed in the vegetable garden.
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